Today we’ll talk about integration between SharePoint 2013 site and external non-SharePoint sites. A lot of our customers would like to provide their users with smooth access to specific documents or BI reports directly from external site bypassing default SharePoint authentication settings.

By default, there is the only way to share your site with external users – “Anonymous access” feature, which will make your SP site public. But this approach is not very good for security reasons. Besides, this option is quite expensive for sites with SharePoint 2013 Server edition.

Our team made some research and finally found an efficient and cost saving solution, we can offer our customers. One of the benefits of our solution is the fact, that our custom code is simple and flexible, you can easily change it to fit your requirements. Another good news are that all initial setup and configuration will be done by our team on our side as a part of our service

We offer:
* Ability to show SharePoint content on external site via iFrame
* Ability to access SharePoint sites without login prompt via direct link
* Simple and flexible code that you can use to show only required information
* Ability to implement SSL certificate for SharePoint site
* Custom login form with Form Based Authentication for your SharePoint environment

Interesting, isn’t it?

Now I will show a couple of examples of solution’s behavior.

Bypassing SharePoint authentication:
1. If User Name, Password and Destination URL are sent in URL as parameters, user will be authenticated automatically and redirected to destination URL.
2. If User Name or Password or Destination URL parameters do not exist in URL, user will be redirected to default authentication form.

Showing your SharePoint resources on external portal:
To show part of the site via iframe (i.e. BI reports), just put the following code to your page as iframe window:
<iframe width=”100%” height=”100%” src=”URL-OF-YOUR-REPORT-OR-PAGE” #CustomPart code part#>
You can change the “src” part to show another part of your site.

Some of our clients use their BI sites to develop PowerView reports for more than one user with different permissions.

For example, BI site for company, which has 5 different sales department.
SharePoint BI sites have a good feature, called PowerPivot gallery, which you can use to host your reports. Today we’ll speak about interesting approach, how we can extend its capabilities, using simple “Promoted Links” app.

Imagine the situation.
We have:
1. Single SharePoint 2013 BI site.
2. 5 different departments which should access BI reports only for their department. As example “RegionName Sales Departments”.

The simple solution is to create 5 separate sub-sites and put links to the main site. But if you want to create an illustrative site this is not enough. We can use “Promoted Links” app to make BI site more expressive and focus users directly on the required information to increase their efficiency.

“Promoted Links” app allows you to show links to other location on the page, but the main point is the possibility to assign pictures and description to these links. So the end user will see the nice logo with floating description instead of a strict link.

Let’s start:
1. Open your BI site.
2. Click Settings icon and click add an app, select “Promoted Links” app.
3. Click new item. Here you can specify the Title, the link to preferred logo, and a brief description for the link.

Pretty simple, isn’t it?
Now the interesting part goes.
Here we can put not only the links to the sub-sites, but direct links to the PowerPivot galleries of the department or even links to the single reports. This is good, because you can show the entire sub-site for the user from the larger department (with bigger amount of data) and show only one needed report for the smaller one.
This is the good way to focus the attention of the end users just on their information.

Also we can use RSDS reports to hide all “excel signs” if necessary. You can read previous post about it.

Nice view, isn’t it? I think that this approach will make your BI site more “human friendly” and at the same time more efficient.
5. Now let’s define the “Landing Page”, where we want to show these items. For example, let’s show it on our home page.
Also we can hide this app from the quick launch menu. To do so go to -> list -> List settings -> List name, description and navigation.
6. Open home page and click edit page. Click “Insert”, then “App part”.

7. Select “Promoted Links” app.
8. Set the proper title size etc. for this web part.
9. Click Save, and Stop editing on the upper ribbon.
We’re done, you will see the webpart on your home page.

The last part is to configure the proper permissions for users and grant them access to their pieces of information. This is something that depends on your company structure.

Sometimes our clients want to hide all signs of “MS Excel” on their BI reports, or just show the report on the full screen.

The reasons are different, but in most cases they don’t want end users to know, that reports were made in MS Excel application. After some research and practical attempts we’ve found that this is not possible, even using custom code. The good news are that there is a good built-in “workaround” inside a SharePoint, the bad news – this option is not showing on the site by default.

This “workaround” is RSDS (shared data source) connection file. Reports based on the RSDS connections provide all PowerPivot/BI capabilities, but without any signs of “MS Excel”. Today we’ll tell you how to enable the RSDS connections and use them to create reports.

By default the *.Rsds file content type does not appear as a new item dropdown in the Data Connection library. So our first step will be to configure the Data Connection library to include the Report Data Source Content type.
1. Navigate to the document library in which you are going to create your RSDS connection file and Power View report
2. Go to the Library tab and click on Library Settings.
3. Navigate to the Advanced Settings.
4. Choose Yes under Allow management of content types, and click OK.
5. Under the Content Types click on the Add from the existing site content types hyperlink.
6. Choose Report Data Source from the available site content types, click Add and then OK.

So, the first part is over. We’ve enabled the RSDS connections for the Data Connection library. Let’s proceed and create RSDS connection file.

1. Return to your document library, in the Files tab click New Document and choose Report Data Source.
2. Enter the name for your RSDS file and choose Microsoft BI Semantic Model for Power View from the Data Source Type menu.
3. In the Connection String field enter a pointer to the data source in the following format: (Data Source=http://yourdomain.com/Shared Documents/YourWorkbook.xlsx).
Optional: If you are using a workbook from the PowerPivot Gallery the pointer will be like: (Data Source=http://yourdomain.com/PowerPivot%20Gallery/YourWorkbook.xlsx).
4. In Credentials leave Windows authentication (integrated) or SharePoint user option selected and click on Test Connection. If connection created successfully, click OK.
5. Now you can see your shared data source (RSDS) connection file.

1. Return to your document library where RSDS connection file was created.
2. Click on the RSDS connection file to start creation of the Power View report.
3. Customize your report according to your goals.
4. Create your report and click on Save as in the File menu.
5. Now you are prompted to save report to the document library. Provide the name for your report and click Save.
6. Return to the document library and refresh the page. You can see your Power View report created using the shared data source (RSDS) connection file.

That is it. We’ve created a PowerView report with no signs of “MS Excel”, only your beautiful data
Hope this post will help you to improve your SharePoint skills.

SharePoint 2013 and Yammer – best social tools for your company

Hello,
As you know, the future of big projects is in social collaboration. All large companies try to make communications inside of the organization simple and productive. So, the question is “Which tool should we use for social collaboration – Yammer or SharePoint 2013?” is the one most asked and discussed. Let`s try to understand this question and answer it in this post.

Yammer

Yammer is a private social network for your company. Please see the following list of the main Yammer features:

Yammer groups. You can setup a Group for all teams, projects or interests. There are two great features such as Quick Access and Announcements you can use in Groups.

Yammer user profiles. Share your knowledge or find the experts you need more easily. Add managers and reports to create a company chat together with your employees. Leader boards display people with the most messages, replied-to messages, and liked messages.

Yammer conversations. You can share an update, add documents, post pools and notify other co-workers by looping them into a conversation using @their_name. See who’s online now and start a private discussion with one or more employees.

Yammer document collaboration. Share MS Office documents, PDFs, images and videos across team and get feedback from them. Collect notes and view all the edits made to a document. Additionally you can email a file and mark files as official and read-only.

Yammer external communication. Great option! You can create a dedicated online workspace to collaborate with business contacts outside of your company and you can easily switch between internal and external networks.

Yammer security. Bring the look and feel of your company. Easily manage access to your Yammer network, sync directories, manage and export network data according to company policies. Set password policies and use the session management to see users devices are logged into with possibility to log them out.

SharePoint 2013

SharePoint 2013 vs Yammer. Microsoft social tools comparison.

Microsoft continues to release updates to both social tools and will continue to innovate no matter which platform you chose and use. As for the question I mentioned above, here is the most popular answer on it:

If you have no restrictions, use Yammer.

If your organization needs to use a dedicated hosting tool, using SharePoint 2013 social features is the best way to meet it.

Yammer is more flexible for collaboration with external partners or customers. If you want to initiate real-time participation and sharing events, meetings or reviews use Yammer with its out-of-box options. But if you want create an intranet portal with the same templates, structured information and web parts – the best tool for you is SharePoint 2013 with social features. SharePoint content is more structured and there are additional options you can use, like workflows, forms, web parts.

Currently, Microsoft is working on the integration between Yammer and SharePoint. After it is finished you would be able to get all best from these two social tools. But now, let your teams decide which of these social platforms is best to use. Please keep in mind that your team is the best decision maker of technologies for your organization.

PlexHosted has a great option for you! You can integrate Yammer with PlexHosted Dedicated SharePoint servers.

Start with the PlexHosted SharePoint hosting today and improve your business tomorrow!

Hello,
Probably you know that SharePoint is a platform that can help you share and organize your company’s reports, documents, etc. But did you know SharePoint can also help you visualize data for your employees.

SharePoint 2013 Power View

You can use PowerView to build and share a dashboard that visualizes your data for your team. You publish the dashboard to your company’s site, so you don’t need to setup any additional security. Please see more details at the following Microsoft video:

Hello,
Today we have great news for you. PlexHosted is pleased to announce that a user password change functionality is now available with our multi-tenant SharePoint 2013 services.

SharePoint 2013 User Password Management

SharePoint user passwords are usually managed from the Active Directory with dedicated SharePoint server or using SharePoint’s Administrative Control Panel provided for multi-tenant service. Previously, multi-tenant users had no ability to change their passwords by themselves and this task has required an administrator to get involved. As a result, extra time was spent for managing passwords every day.

SharePoint 2013 Change Password Feature

Now, if an administrator wants to give users the ability to manage their passwords, a SharePoint “Change Password” feature can be enabled for the site collection.

SharePoint 2013 Change Password feature

PlexHosted’s new password change functionality helps to relieve your administrators from this mundane and time consuming task. Users can now change passwords for themselves directly from the SharePoint site without the need to callwrite admin and request a change. What is more, this new functionality allows keeping passwords even more securely than before.

SharePoint 2013 Change Password Web Part

Take a look at how easily users can change passwords for a SharePoint 2013 site with this feature:

They just need to click Change Password.

SharePoint 2013 Change Password
Then type old and new passwords, confirm and click Save.

SharePoint 2013 User Password Management
It is simple and will greatly reduce the time administrators spend every day changing passwords so they can focus on the process of improving your SharePoint sites.

Start with the PlexHosted SharePoint hosting today and improve your business tomorrow!

An Intranet is an internal company portal that can be used to make team work more productive, effortless, cost effective and competitive. It is an essential part of the organization’s infrastructure. A successful SharePoint intranet usually has high usability because company owners have full control over the environment and know exactly who the users are and how they actually use intranet. Investments in intranet improvements are crucial since the intranet usability and high user adoption helps improve business productivity and therefore increase overall company profits.

SharePoint Intranet

SharePoint is one of the most widely used application platforms for a company’s intranet portal. According to the Nielsen Norman Group`s research, 70% of successful intranets are built on SharePoint. Additionally, Nielsen Norman Group determines 10 best intranet portals every year and the best ones for 2013 are:

These companies are of different sizes and from different countries. These intranets are used for their entire organizations and have been designed to take into consideration specific company needs in their particular sphere of business.
To read about these companies please see the following page – 2013 Intranet Design Award Winners.

This research helps to specify the latest trends in the development of successful intranet portals. Let’s take a look at them.

Time for intranet design – the average time to create and design a portal is 3.5 years, but lately it has decreased to 2.3 years. The process of designing a company portal is not a simple task.

The size of an organization – it has become simpler for small companies to develop good company portals using modern technologies. The SharePoint platform provides a number of features for great intranet implementation with its social features, efficient MS Office integration, information search and filtering capabilities.

Intranet management team – nowadays it is important to involve more people in building a successful intranet site. It is impossible for a small team to design and manage an intranet portal that will completely satisfy the needs of all company employees and help improve collaboration and work productivity. The more people involved in the building process – the better the result will be for end users.

Consulting companies and developers – external consultants are usually involved in helping with SharePoint planning, development, design and branding. They serve to complete particular tasks in which your company`s team does not have enough expertise.

The authors of intranet content – it is important to consider the primary requirements of the employees when designing the intranet. The best way to ensure usability, high user adoption rates and relevant content inside the portal is to involve people from different offices and departments, the people who will use the site.

Feature and design development – the latest trend in intranets is to use such features as personalized pages, extended profiles, video channels and mega menus. The additional new features widely used are integration with social sites like Facebook or LinkedIn, and extended filters on site pages.

Educating employees about social and enterprise features of the platform – intranet users need to know the main usage rules and it is a good idea to provide a short guideline for them. It is also important to establish communication between teams and motivate users for commenting, sharing and creating conversations.

Permissions – complex site permissions can be a nightmare for your intranet management team. Nowadays most of the companies tend to protect business critical files by using simple permission strategies to avoid the unnecessary complexity.

The practice of a great number of companies from all over the world shows that the SharePoint platform is a perfect tool for designing a company’s intranet portal. Taking into consideration the latest trends, advances from SharePoint consultants and experienced users, you can build a powerful portal for your team and achieve better results.PlexHosted can provide you with a starting point for your successful intranet. From the planning stage, to SharePoint implementation and customization – this is something PlexHosted can help you with.

Start with the PlexHosted SharePoint hosting today and improve your business tomorrow!

Hello
Are you looking for a trustworthy and cost effective SharePoint Hosting 2013 Provider? Do you want a SharePoint site that does not lose your business data? Please read the following SharePoint hosting provider overview and so you can choose the best SharePoint hosting provider.

Considerations when choosing a SharePoint Hosting Provider

How to choose a qualified SharePoint Hosting provider?

Company owners and other decision makers can choose among several alternative SharePoint services that will be best for their company and provide the best return on investment. Here’s what to consider when choosing SharePoint for your business:

SharePoint Edition – First of all, you need to select the SharePoint version (2010 or 2013) you need and what feature edition, Foundation, Standard or Enterprise, has the most relevant features for you. Take a look at PlexHosted’s feature comparison page and see what features are best for your company and employees. This will help to determine what SharePoint edition works best for you.

SharePoint Storage and Users – How much storage is required for your site and how many users will be using it? Determine how many employees will need access to your site, and for what purposes it will used. This will help you to decide whether you need 500 Mb for simple document repository, or several GB for pictures, videos, forms, records, databases, and workbooks. Note that for a large storage requirement (from 100 GB) it may be more convenient and cost effective to setup a dedicated server. In addition PlexHosted has no user limits, so you can have 1, 2 or any other number of SharePoint users with the ability to increase/decrease the number of users and/or amount of storage at any time.

SharePoint Internet or Intranet site – Will you need to open your site to the public by enabling Anonymous access? The license for this feature is costly for Standard and Enterprise editions, so you should pay attention to this requirement. When choosing the proper SharePoint edition, SharePoint feature set and anonymous access are important to think about.

So now you know three main options that will assist you in choosing the best SharePoint hosting provider. Not all SharePoint hosting providers offer all SharePoint hosting plans with all the necessary features. It might be good for them, but will probably not work for you. PlexHosted offers four different SharePoint hosting plans: Foundation, Standard, Enterprise and Enterprise with PowerPivot which should meet your requirements. PlexHosted also offers multi-tenant hosting as well as dedicated servers for SharePoint hosting.

How to make sure you have chosen the best SharePoint hosting company with SharePoint experts?

The following guidelines will help you make sure you are working with SharePoint experts.

SharePoint support should be available 24/7/365 to help you resolve any issues or clarify configuration options.

99.99% availability for SharePoint servers.

No hidden fees for SharePoint hosting services and support, and no hidden SharePoint limits.

After answering these questions and putting together the necessary information, you will know what is needed for your business and find a perfect solution for you. But, if you still have questions, you are always free to ask PlexHosted’s SharePoint experts for their help. Since PlexHosted meets all these requirements you can be assured that you will be working with SharePoint experts.

Start with the PlexHosted SharePoint hosting today and improve your business tomorrow!

Hello readers,
Need to learn about SharePoint licensing for a new project? Want to know how to pay the minimum price for the best SharePoint hosting? You are at the right place. In today’s post I`ll tell you about SharePoint hosting plans and SharePoint 2013 licensing.

SharePoint 2013 hosting plans

There are different SharePoint hosting environments, dedicated and multi-tenant and three SharePoint editions. All this can confuse end users which have not worked with SharePoint before. At first look, SharePoint licensing seems difficult to understand. But if we take a look at it more deeply you will learn that SharePoint licensing is pretty easy to understand.

SharePoint 2013 CALs Licensing

PlexHosted offers SharePoint in three editions: Foundation, Standard, and Enterprise. The main difference between editions is in the various SharePoint features (see SharePoint Features Comparison) and pricing for the Client Access Licenses (CALs). SharePoint Enterprise edition offers an additional capability for Business Intelligence (PowerPivot Workbooks Hosting). In general, all SharePoint sites are licensed using a CAL model – CALs are required for each user accessing a SharePoint site. Let’s take a look at SharePoint 2013 hosting plans offered by PlexHosted.

SharePoint 2013 Foundation CALs – you can have an unlimited number of users without paying for CALs, so you pay only for the SharePoint site storage. More details are at PlexHosted SharePoint 2013 Foundation

The other point to keep in mind is the pricing for SharePoint CALs is the same for multi-tenant and dedicated environments.

SharePoint Hosting Environment Licensing

Multi-tenant SharePoint Hosting Environment – With multi-tenant SharePoint hosting you get access to the SharePoint site collection level without having to pay separately for SharePoint/SQL licenses and servers. It`s really great to have a SharePoint site and pay only for the site size and CALs

Dedicated SharePoint Hosting Environment – With dedicated SharePoint hosting you get root access to all servers in your SharePoint farm as well as complete access to SharePoint Central Administration. In this case the price for dedicated hosting includes all the necessary licenses and pricing for CALs (for the specified number of users), servers, and SharePoint/SQL licenses. Alternatively you can supply your own Microsoft licenses under Microsoft’s License Mobility plan

As I promised SharePoint 2013 licensing is pretty easy to understanding. So, now you know the difference between all SharePoint editions and environments. Hope my post is helpful and can help you to make a right choice in SharePoint 2013 hosting.

Start with the PlexHosted SharePoint hosting today and improve your business tomorrow!